EXCLUSIVE: SMASHING her way to the top of the leader board week after week on Dancing on Ice, Jorgie Porter just keeps getting better.

SMASHING her way to the top of the leader board week after week on Dancing on Ice, Jorgie Porter just keeps getting better.

The first star of the series to conquer the dreaded head-banger routine with partner Matt Evers, the Hollyoaks actress is the bookies’ favourite to be crowned the next queen of the ice.

And yet, while public support for the star soars and her devoted mum Julie and boyfriend James travel from Manchester to London to cheer her on every Sunday, two important people are missing from the audience.

Jorgie’s dad, a man she only met once as a child, and her little sister. In fact, she’s not even sure if they’re cheering her on at home. “I wouldn’t have a clue if they’re watching,” she says.

“I don’t know them. I’ve no memory of my dad, it’s like I’ve never seen him, and it’s the same with my sister.

“She’s never been in my life and I don’t know if I’d even like that. I find it hard enough to see my own friends and the family I already have. But you never know what’s going to happen.”

Brought up in Salford, near Manchester, by her mum and beloved gran Elizabeth, 24-year-old Jorgie, who plays Theresa McQueen in the Channel 4 soap, insists she’s not bothered by the family she doesn’t see.

Her parents split when she was very young but she seems excited by the idea her little sister, her father’s daughter by another woman, might look up to her.

“Who knows?” she laughs. “She might think it’s cool her big sister’s on the TV, but she might not. She’s five years younger so for now she probably just wants to do her own thing.”

Growing up with her mum on one side and her gran on the other, Jorgie’s always had enough family support. “They’re amazing,” she says. “They’ve done everything for me and they’ve always been really proud of me.”

So what do they think of her performances on the ice? “My mum loves it!” she laughs. “She comes down to London every time she can.

“My grandma loves it too, but she has a bad skin condition called cellulitis and she’s housebound so she can’t come – she’s 85 – and it would just be too much for her. It’s upsetting for me that she can’t be in the audience but she watches at home, she still lives with mum.

“The only thing is she thinks Heidi Range is me. Apparently, my neighbours were texting my mum during the show saying grandma was confusing Heidi for me.

“My uncle had to tell her, ‘Oh no, Jorgie’s not the one in the pretty dress, she’s the one in the black LEATHER and the BRA!’”

But her controversial outfits haven’t been enough to put off her biggest fans – her artist mum and Hollyoaks co-star boyfriend James Atherton, 21.

“Oh my God, you don’t understand what my mum’s like,” she laughs. “If people looked in through the window they’d think she’s a crazy stalker. There are these giant scrap books with every single magazine thing I’ve done, every single word about Hollyoaks and every picture I’ve ever been in. It’s mad.”

And James, who plays Will Savage in the soap, has been very taken with Jorgie’s raunchy ensembles.

Although the raunchiest of all, her headline-grabbing leathers, just happened to be the one she wore the night James’s entire family drove down from Carlisle to watch her on the show.

“I was terrified,” she says. “Of all the outfits, I was in leather that week in front of his whole family.

“But they had a great time. I was really worried in case I got kicked out. Luckily, I was pinned right into the bra too. It was scary but I was strapped in tight.”

As if the pressure of staying in the show, and her outfit, wasn’t enough, that was also the first night she introduced James’s family to her mum.

“It’s serious,” laughs Jorgie. “Mum was gushing about his family – ‘I love his sister, his dad, his mum’s amazing! I’m going to write them a letter.’

“She’s hilarious, but she really loves James and she was so excited that they were all lovely too.”

After spending the first three months of their relationship in secret, Jorgie is glad things are in the open. “It was so cool to have a little secret romance. I miss it a bit,” she admits.

“But this seems even better and you think how do I still like him so much after over six months?”

Oozing sex appeal in her super-skimpy outfits on the ice, it takes a serious stretch of the imagination to picture Jorgie as anything other than petite.

Now a toned size six, not long ago she was verging on a size 16. And on her 5ft 2in frame, that was pretty bulky, especially as she was desperate to be a ballerina.

“I think I used to have the opposite of anorexia,” she said. “I’d be twirling around at dance class thinking, ‘I am MINT’ when I probably looked quite silly.

“But it didn’t bother me at all. Looking back, I was big, especially for a dancer. I used to binge on loads of food because I felt miserable. In the real world, that weight is fine for a woman but if you want to be a dancer or an actress, it’s harder.”

So when finally, at 17, she realised that she wouldn’t get work – she was about 12st at her heaviest – Jorgie took action.

“I would pound the gym,” she says. “I’d do three-mile runs every morning and by the time I was 19, I’d lost loads.

“I stopped going to the gym as much and stopped stressing about food. I’m a six now and think I finally fit my body and my face looks right.”

Let’s hope there are no major changes in the next few weeks – whatever she’s been doing so far in rehearsals has worked and she’s is a serious contender to take the Dancing on Ice trophy with Matt, 35.

“I don’t even want to think about winning,” grins Jorgie. “It’s too exciting. Right now I’m just happy that I’m still in.”